Scripps Set To Break Ground At Mecca Site

Dignitaries, As Well As Critics, To Attend

The setting is an orange grove once called Mecca Farms in western Palm Beach County.

The cast includes Gov. Jeb Bush, world-renowned scientists and protesters.

And the plot has a dash of high society, with an invitation-only lunch offering jumbo shrimp and mango-drizzled white chocolate mousse.

This is groundbreaking, Scripps Florida-style.

Scripps' taxpayer-funded East Coast campus will take a much-anticipated leap toward reality Friday, when Bush and Dr. Richard Lerner, president of The Scripps Research Institute, shovel the site's maiden handfuls of soil.

With that, workers will commence building three Scripps science labs expected to beckon top researchers and prompt a biotechnology boom. Scripps and the sprawling, 1,919-acre science village are being paid for with $800 million in state and county money.

Groundbreaking is a "visible expression of our commitment," Palm Beach County Commissioner Mary McCarty said. "It does have a psychological benefit that Scripps is real, it is going to be here."

Scripps Florida has been likened to Disney World in its economic muscle, but delays, lawsuits and wrangling over where to locate the campus marred the path to Friday's ceremony.

Bush lured San Diego-based Scripps to Florida in October 2003 by promising $310 million in state money. Since then, Scripps has been heralded as a job-growth engine and derided as a gateway to urban sprawl out west.

A start to construction is "long-anticipated and long-awaited," said Criser, whose group oversees the state money. "It has been delayed some, but it gives renewed vigor to the enterprise.

"It's here now. It's under way."

The groundbreaking will be broadcast live on closed-circuit TV at PGA National Resort & Spa, where about 250 Scripps employees, high-dollar donors and business leaders will gather for an exclusive luncheon.

For some, groundbreaking is bittersweet. There was a divisive struggle over the choice of Mecca Farms as Scripps' home, with environmentalists arguing that it would promote sprawl in a rural region.

Commissioner Karen Marcus, a Mecca critic, said she's approaching the groundbreaking "with a lot of mosquito spray," a quip about the site's rural surroundings.

" I still think there are better sites than the Mecca site," she said.

Nevertheless, Marcus added, "I wouldn't have voted for [Scripps] if I didn't want them in town. I'm glad they're in town."

Others aren't. "We'll definitely be welcoming the groundbreaking people," said Boca Raton attorney Barry Silver, whose Palm Beach County Environmental Coalition is among several groups that have sued to stop the Scripps project. He said Friday's protest might involve singing.

Already, Scripps has been working behind the scenes to get construction to a quick start. Scripps and project manager The Weitz Co. have begun handing out 90-plus contracts for jobs, such as pouring cement, caulking and carpeting.

Three contracts related to foundation work have been awarded, with more to come, Scripps facilities manager Benjamin Morris said. "Construction can start," he said.

In the meantime, Scripps Florida's 130 employees are crammed into a building at Florida Atlantic University's Jupiter campus. A second temporary building is expected to open next summer, but scientists are looking forward to a permanent home. Drawings of the leafy, Mecca Farms campus have been posted in the foyer to remind employees of what's to come.

Josh Hafenbrack can be reached at jhafenbrack@sun-sentinel.com or 561-243-6522.